A capital in architecture is a structural element that has also been decorated and designed as if it were a sculpture. What makes architecture part of the Fine Arts is its ability to convert spaces and constructions into an artistic object. Although contemporary architects choose, for the most part, by orthogonal lines and minimalist designs, as well as focusing on resignifying the architectural work with respect to its context, for almost 19 centuries, architecture was a more poetic means of expression and, therefore, from the friezes to the capitals ornament.
Reading the architecture is also reading the storyand since architecture is architecture, the capital has accompanied and evolved with it. Here are everything you need to know about Capitel in architecture.
It is known as capitel to the coronation of a column or pilastra.Mick Haupt / Unspash.
What is a capitel in construction?
When talking about a Capitel in architecture Reference is made to one of the parts that make up the column. This is divided into the base, which is the bottom and distributes the load towards the ground; The shaft, which is the body, and The capitel, which is the piece that crowns the column. In addition, it is the union between the shaft and the horizontal element that will rest on the column itself, and always needs the presence of the abacus, which is a block that is brought between the capital and its upper element.
The capitel, as part of a whole, was born from the hand of the adintelado system, that is, the structure formed by two columns and a trab. This system is the most basic and elementary, but opened the door so that the architecture could roof and, subsequently, evolve according to the constructive possibilities of each era. When conceiving the spaces delimited in three planes (floor, walls and roof), the architecture became, in addition to a shelter, an artistic canvas for the most curious and creative. For example, for the Greeks, the capital was the means to represent the masculine, the feminine and the childish of their society and its mythology, since the gods were the design axis for all their constructions. According to the historical registry, The Egyptians were the first to venture and work with the capital in architecture.